The Impact of Sodium Contamination in Tin Sulfide Thin-Film Solar Cells

Matthew Young; Vera Steinmann; Riley Brandt; Rupak Chakraborty; R. Jaramillo; Benjamin Ofori-Okai; Chuanxi Yang; Alex Polizzotti; Keith Nelson; Roy Gordon; Tonio Buonassisi

doi:10.1063/1.4941713

The Impact of Sodium Contamination in Tin Sulfide Thin-Film Solar Cells

Matthew Young, Vera Steinmann, Riley Brandt, Rupak Chakraborty, R. Jaramillo, Benjamin Ofori-Okai, Chuanxi Yang, Alex Polizzotti, Keith Nelson, Roy Gordon, Tonio Buonassisi

Materials Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

22 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Through empirical observations, sodium (Na) has been identified as a benign contaminant in some thin-film solar cells. Here, we intentionally contaminate thermally evaporated tin sulfide (SnS) thin-films with sodium and measure the SnS absorber properties and solar cell characteristics. The carrier concentration increases from 2 × 10¹⁶ cm^-3 to 4.3 × 10¹⁷ cm^-3 in Na-doped SnS thin-films, when using a 13 nm NaCl seed layer, which is detrimental for SnS photovoltaic applications but could make Na-doped SnS an attractive candidate in thermoelectrics. The observed trend in carrier concentration is in good agreement with density functional theory calculations, which predict an acceptor-type Na_Sn defect with low formation energy.

Original language	American English
Article number	Article No. 026103
Number of pages	7
Journal	APL Materials
Volume	4
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4941713 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4941713
State	Published - 1 Feb 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Author(s).

NREL Publication Number

NREL/JA-5K00-66084

Keywords

carrier density
II-VI semiconductors
secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS)
sodium
solar cells

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abstract = "Through empirical observations, sodium (Na) has been identified as a benign contaminant in some thin-film solar cells. Here, we intentionally contaminate thermally evaporated tin sulfide (SnS) thin-films with sodium and measure the SnS absorber properties and solar cell characteristics. The carrier concentration increases from 2 × 1016 cm-3 to 4.3 × 1017 cm-3 in Na-doped SnS thin-films, when using a 13 nm NaCl seed layer, which is detrimental for SnS photovoltaic applications but could make Na-doped SnS an attractive candidate in thermoelectrics. The observed trend in carrier concentration is in good agreement with density functional theory calculations, which predict an acceptor-type NaSn defect with low formation energy.",

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AU - Steinmann, Vera

AU - Brandt, Riley

AU - Chakraborty, Rupak

AU - Jaramillo, R.

AU - Ofori-Okai, Benjamin

AU - Yang, Chuanxi

AU - Polizzotti, Alex

AU - Nelson, Keith

AU - Gordon, Roy

AU - Buonassisi, Tonio

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AB - Through empirical observations, sodium (Na) has been identified as a benign contaminant in some thin-film solar cells. Here, we intentionally contaminate thermally evaporated tin sulfide (SnS) thin-films with sodium and measure the SnS absorber properties and solar cell characteristics. The carrier concentration increases from 2 × 1016 cm-3 to 4.3 × 1017 cm-3 in Na-doped SnS thin-films, when using a 13 nm NaCl seed layer, which is detrimental for SnS photovoltaic applications but could make Na-doped SnS an attractive candidate in thermoelectrics. The observed trend in carrier concentration is in good agreement with density functional theory calculations, which predict an acceptor-type NaSn defect with low formation energy.

KW - carrier density

KW - II-VI semiconductors

KW - secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS)

KW - sodium

KW - solar cells

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The Impact of Sodium Contamination in Tin Sulfide Thin-Film Solar Cells

Abstract

Bibliographical note

NREL Publication Number

Keywords

UN SDGs

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